


Misunderstanding!

by KendraTrap



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Humorous Nonsense!, M/M, zukka - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-21
Updated: 2020-05-21
Packaged: 2021-03-03 04:20:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,949
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24298747
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KendraTrap/pseuds/KendraTrap
Summary: Sokka and Zuko accidentally kiss and now everyone thinks they're a couple.. just their luck.
Relationships: Zuko/Sokka
Comments: 19
Kudos: 427





	Misunderstanding!

"Zuko!" Sokka called. Zuko turned to see Sokka running across the temple to him. "I just talked to my dad, and-" He tripped and fell on his face. "Ow..." he said, rubbing his head.

Zuko sighed before walking over to him. He held a hand down to help Sokka up. "Yeah? Is everything-" Sokka, who had taken the offered hand, then stepped on a small rock, causing him to slip and fall again, this time pulling Zuko down with him, slamming their foreheads together.

And their mouths.

They separated lips, whatever either of them were saying completely forgotten. "Uh..." Zuko said with intelligence, starring down at Sokka.

"Um..." Sokka blankly agreed.

A water stream struck Zuko in the face and shot him backward off of Sokka. "What.. what are you doing to my brother?!" Katara shouted, running and kneeling next to a stunned Sokka. Zuko was still in shock, even as water dripped and pooled around him.

"Um..." he explained.

"Uh..." Sokka added. He shook his head. "I mean.. Katara, it's fine, I just slipped and pulled him down." He tried for a smile. It looked incredibly forced.

"I can't believe you, Sokka!" Katara yelled at him.

"No, it's my fault," Zuko said, standing up. "I should've had better footing and kept us from falling."

Katara sent a glare at him. "I know it's your fault!" she seethed. She turned back to Sokka. "I didn't know... Well, I didn't know you swung that way Sokka, but you can't do that with Zu-"

"Whoa!" Sokka said, pushing her away from him, and standing up. "What do you mean 'swung that way'? You're saying that I'm... you know... I'm gay?!"

"You're what now?" Toph asked, just walking in on the conversation with Aang because of course they do. "Snoozles, you like other guys?" 

"No!"

"It's my fault," Zuko stepped in calmly. "I accidentally let him pull me down, we kissed, and then his sister caught us while we were lying together," he explained with absolute reason. 

Toph, Aang, and Katara all blushed. Sokka sent him a withering look. "Not helping," he muttered. He turned to the group. "I have Suki!" he tried again. Then he pointed to Zuko. "And he has the gloomy chick who sighs a lot!"

"Her name is Mai!"

"So I don't like him!" Then he saw hurt expression on Zuko's face and remembered how much Zuko was trying to get along with the group. "I mean..." He lowered his voice and looked away. "Not like that."

"Um, Sokka?" Aang said. "I know you're probably just wording that badly, but.. you don't sound convincing at all."

"Also, Snoozles," Toph added in a factual tone. "You're lying."

"What?" Sokka jerked his head toward her with wide eyes. "No, I'm not!"

Zuko looked at Sokka who blushed slightly and turned away. Zuko blinked in confusion and cleared his throat. "Listen, Toph, your ability comes from increased heart rate, right?" Toph nodded. "Both of our hearts are probably acting differently because of this misunderstanding; I don't think you can tell lies right now." He took a deep breath. "I don't like him in that way either."

Toph seemed to stare at him. "You're lying too." Katara and Aang each stared at the two teenage boys.

"No, I'm not!" Everyone was silent. He turned to Sokka in frustration. "It doesn't look like they're going to believe us."

"No," he agreed. Then he sighed."Whatever."

"I.. I can't believe this," Katara mumbled in horror. "Sokka loves Zuko?" Aang nodded mutely.

Just as both boys were about to protest, Toph laughed loudly- hysterically even, bending over to the point of almost falling down. Everyone stared at her until she calmed down. "Toph.. what is that about?" Sokka asked suspiciously.

Still giggling, she said, "Wow, you guys really believe me no matter what, huh?" She turned a grin at Sokka and Zuko. "Even you guys were second-guessing yourselves!" She beamed.

"No, we-" Zuko started.

Katara glared at her. "So you're saying that they don't like each other?"

"Haha, of course, they don't Sugerqueen," Toph replied, waving her hand at the idea.

"Exactly!" Sokka exclaimed. "It's official then; I don't love Zuko!" He grinned at Zuko in relief, and Zuko returned it with a tired smile.

Toph suddenly stopped giggling, and both the boys smiles slowly faded. "Yeah, Toph?.." Sokka asked hesitantly.

"Repeat what you just said about Zuko," she demanded.

"I don't love him?"

Toph turned to Zuko. "How do you feel about Sokka?"

"What?" Zuko asked, taking a step back. "Uh... I guess I got to know him better when we went to the Boiling Rock, so... He's a friend- maybe?"

Sokka suddenly turned on him. "Maybe?" he asked. "Hey, I thought we were-"

He was cut off by Toph. "No, I meant whether you love him or not."

"Of course I don't love him!" Zuko exclaimed. "I thought we've been through-"

Toph blinked slowly. "You too don't like each other.. you actually love each other? " she muttered in shock. Then she turned stiffly around and left.

"What?" Zuko and Sokka asked after the retreating figure. Katara and Aang just stared at them. Zuko and Sokka turned toward each other. "So..." Sokka said.

"So..." Zuko replied. "Oh, uh... what were you wanting to tell me earlier, before.. all of this happened?"

Sokka smiled in relief, glad for the change of subject. "Oh, right, my dad wants to talk to you; he said he wants to thank you for what happened at the boiling rock, and that he had a few questions."

"Oh." He looked at Sokka's sister and the Avatar who were both still staring. "I should go to him then."

Sokka glanced at them too. "Yeah," he agreed. They turned, Zuko following Sokka. "Hey listen," Sokka said over his shoulder. "How about we just forget that ever happened?"

"Yeah," Zuko agreed. "Let's do that." Sokka smiled. Finally, that whole episode was behind them.

They rounded a corner and saw Sokka's father, Hakoda with Suki. When he saw them, he smiled. "Ah, about time you two," he said, walking over to them. "What took so long?"

"A misunderstanding," they muttered, both looking away from the man and each other.

Hakoda frowned, then shrugged. "Alright." He gestured away from them. "Let's go somewhere a little more private," he said, as Haru, Teo, and the duke walked nearby, likely still expanding their everlasting exploration of the temple. They nodded and followed him out of sight of the others.

"Okay, you two sit down here," Hokoda directed, pointing in front of him at the floor. Both boys frowned. "Come on, I need to talk to you two properly- this is important." So they did as he wanted.

He sat crossed legged in front of the teenagers and looked directly at Zuko. "Alright, so I saw how you and my son looked at each other during the Boiling Rock escape," he said seriously. "How well you worked together, and how much you cared for one another. I've waited a while, and I think I should've been told by now."

Zuko squirmed under the man's gaze. "What do you mean?" he asked. "That Sokka and I have become too close because I used to be the Fire Nation prince?"

"What?" the man asked, his eyebrows lowered in confusion. "No, I was just wanting you two to tell me the truth."

"The truth?" Sokka asked, his expression identical to his father's.

"Yes." He looked between the two with honest confusion. "You two are together, right? You know, going to be married someday? I just thought you should've told-"

"What?!" Sokka shouts. Zuko just sat there stiff and stunned. "We aren't like that!" Sokka continued, jumping to his feet. But his right foot slipped, and he fell to his side, arms flailing, on top of Zuko.

Their lips met for the second time that morning.

Hokoda's eyebrows rose. "Are you sure?" he asked as both boys hurried to separate.

Blushing, both boys looked away and muttered, "Yes."

Sokka's father gave them a pointedly unconvinced look.  
-  
\--  
\---  
\--  
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"Alright, so here's the plan," Sokka whispered, scraping the stone floor with a stick as he and Zuko crouched behind a corner of the temple. Just around said corner, Katara, Suki, and Haru were just finishing making lunch, while the others talked to each other as they awaited the meal. "We're going to get in a huge fight, -staged, of course, so don't go all out- and at some point, we're going to hit the other's head. Then we'll pretend to have lost the last few days of memory and they'll stop bugging us. Simple as that." He looked up. "Got it?"

"But Toph can tell we're lying," Zuko argued in a quiet tone.

"Not if we don't lie," Sokka replied with a grin. At Zuko's quirked eyebrow, he continued. "So long as we tell the technical truths, we won't get caught. Such as, instead of saying, 'I lost my memory of the past few days' it's better if we said, 'I can't really remember everything from the past few days' - because we don't, who does?"

"Oh," Zuko said, giving a firm nod of understanding. "When do we start?" he asked, eager for all this to be behind them.

"Right now," Sokka smirked. He then launched himself at Zuko in a grapple. "How dare you?!" he shouted in a theatrical voice. "Because of you, Suki thinks I'm gay!" he continued. It wasn't a lie, unfortunately, as Suki did believe that and thought it best if they broke up- for his sake of all things.

"How dare you?!" Zuko returned, far more embarrassed. "If Mai hears about this, she's going to pincushion me!" Again, that was the unfortunate truth, and it nearly made Sokka laugh.

He quickly schooled his expression into anger and continued. This went on for a good few minutes before they noticed the crowd they had gathered. Finally, Sokka pretended to headbutt Zuko, and thankfully Zuko realized the signal; they broke apart each falling to their back, silent as they pretended to be knocked out.

There was a long moment of silence.

Then, "Do they think they actually fooled us?" Katara's angry voice demanded.

"I think it's funny actually." Hakoda, Sokka's dad replied.

"They know I can feel their breathing and that they're not sleeping right?" Toph put in.

"..Why did they do all of that?" Aang asked confused.

"No idea," Suki replied.

"So are they just going to stay like that?" Haru asked tentatively.

"What's going on?" the Duke wondered.

"When you're older," Teo replied.

The two boys continued laying silently on the ground unchanged as they heard everything. Well, unchanged but for the tomato faces they now each wore.

Silence. "I guess they're really sticking to it," Hakoda commented.

"It's probably embarrassing for them to admit they've been caught." Suki agreed.

Hakoda laughed at that and turned away, back toward the food, as did Katara -much more stiffly- and everyone else. Except Toph.

"No seriously, get up you two."

Nothing.

"If you don't get up now, I'm encasing you both in there and claiming you made love to each other." She grinned. "We all know who they'll believe after yesterday."

The boys shot to their feet, their faces an even darker shade of red. "Toph!" Sokka shouted appalled. Then he groaned, his face going to his hands. "My plan just made everything worse."

Surprisingly, Zuko didn't agree and start shouting at him, and instead put a reassuring hand on his shoulder. "You tried, that's what matters," he said with a strained smile. Then his hand dropped, the warmth suddenly gone. "Though this really is bad," he groaned. "Any other ideas? Maybe we should try-"

"Okay!" Toph interrupted. "Keep your hands and kind words to yourself Sparky, cause otherwise, Sokka's heart's going to explode."

"What?! I... You... Grr!" Sokka sputtered.

"What?" Zuko asked also, taking a tentative step away from Sokka with a slight blush. Then he scowled at Toph. "We're only friends-" he started.

"Ew, gross," Toph said, turning away. "You too? Get a room."

"What..." he didn't get any further, his mouth opening and closing without sound.

"I officially regret staying behind the others," Toph stated. She then turned away from them and walked away waving a halfhearted hand. "Feel you later."

Sokka and Zuko stood there in silence, watching the small earthbender walk away until she was out of sight.

"Well that didn't work," Sokka commented.

"No kidding," Zuko replied, with a renewed scowl. A long moment passed in which Sokka shifted with unease. "How does Toph's thing work anyway?"Zuko suddenly asked. "I mean, I know the whole heart rate part, but that can't be all of it."

"Um, well, she says it has something to do with the heart, breath, movement, and even how the muscle tenses."

"Any idea how that caused her to think we, er... love... each other?" Zuko asked, awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck.

Sokka shrugged. "Hey, I don't know that much about the human body; you should ask Katara about stuff like that considering she's a healer." He paused. "But if I had to guess, she must've misinterpreted our bodies somehow."

"She seemed pretty sure..."

"Well, it's either that or she's right and we're wrong. I don't see that as likely; no one knows you better than yourself, right?"

"I don't know," Zuko mumbled.

Sokka's head jerked to him. "Wait, what?" he asked.

Zuko looked at him in confusion before realizing he had said that out loud. "What? Oh, no, I didn't mean.. gah." He stopped, took a breath, then started over. "I don't really know my own feelings that well. I'm mostly either confused, angry, or both."

"I would add awkward in that," Sokka commented.

After a quick glare, Zuko continued. "So I'm used to covering up unwanted emotions. I can't honestly say I do or don't feel a certain way on some things."

"Wait, so you're saying you might like me it that way?.." Sokka asked.

"No! I mean... What do I mean?" he growled in frustration.

Sokka felt a certain amount of amusement and fondness for him as he laughed at his struggle. "It's fine, you're just overthinking it Zuko," he said, slinging an arm over his shoulder. "Don't worry about how everyone's acting right now- it'll blow over eventually," he said, smiling easily. "The only problem really, is how well Suki took it." His expression fell for a couple of seconds, before he sighed. "Ah well, maybe after we clear up this misunder-" He was interrupted by Zuko's lips. His eyes grew wide as Zuko continued the kiss for a long second before it broke. "Standing." he finished breathlessly, a pitch higher than he began. "Though I actually need to sit now," he added, his knees wobbling slightly.

"What did I do?" Zuko asked in horror, as he slowly lowered Sokka to let him sit on the floor before basically collapsing next to him.

"Funny. I was about to ask that," Sokka said, still catching his breath. "Why did you do that?" he added. He meant for the words to came out more forceful, demanding, maybe even angry. They came out pitifully soft.

"I don't know!" Zuko yelled. "Why did you suddenly look so cute?!" he demanded, pointing an accusing finger at him.

"I looked.. what?"

Zuko blushed. "I mean... I don't know." he finished lamely.

They sat like that. "Toph might've been right after all," Sokka finally said, as much to his own surprise as Zuko's. "Well, I mean," Sokka quickly continued before Zuko could say anything. "Back at the prison when I thought you were about to be captured but then you did that amazing jump after breaking the lever, I was worried. Like really worried. But I thought it was just because you were a friend, not... This."

"What's 'this?'" Zuko asked cautiously, staring intently at Sokka's blue eyes as his heart began to pick up speed.

"I'm not saying it out loud," Sokka said, glaring at him. "You know full well what I mean, and I-" Again, Zuko kissed him. "Would you stop that?" Sokka demanded, pushing at Zuko's shoulders, a blush covering his face.

"Then you stop being cute," Zuko replied with a soft voice, having a blush of his own.

"I'm not cute; I'm a man!" Sokka said, pouting- in a very manly way of course.

"Right..." Zuko said. He swallowed and leaned away. "You're a guy... I just kissed a guy."

Sokka frowned. "Yeah, well, I don't really care anymore."

"What?" Zuko asked startled. "But isn't it gross? I mean, I know it was me who kissed you, but shouldn't you feel-"

Sokka held up a hand. "Suki already broke up with me, Dad already gave his approval, and I couldn't care less anymore." He sighed. "Want to try it out?" he asked softly. "If not, then I guess that's-" He was cut off as Zuko pushed him down against the floor, then lifted his head in yet another kiss. "Seriously Zuko!" he yelled, pushing on his chest with one hand, and the floor with the other to lift the firebender's face up a few inches. "Would you stop interrupting that way! I-" Zuko ignored him and pushed down to do it again.

Unfortunately, Katara happened to be coming around the corner at that moment with a bowl of soup. "Sokka, what are you still doing over here? You shouldn't be alone with... Zuko." She stared at them, Zuko leaning over Sokka, his hand behind Sokka's head bringing her brother's lips to meet his, and Sokka not resisting except for a hand against Zuko's chest that wasn't pushing very hard. "SOKKA!"

**Author's Note:**

> This was intended as a one-shot, that became a two-shot, but then combined into a one-shot again, so... Also, Sokka is definitely the bottom of this ship! Maybe I'll write a real romantic story between them, showing depth, and drama, and emotions, and development! But probably not- I'm not a good enough writer for that.


End file.
